In The Presence of Evil

I used to think I "knew" people by looking at them. But in the end, I tired of being wrong. I found that if I talked to people, open them up a bit,
I could peer beyond their appearance to see better who they are, perhaps even make them smile.

It is completely natural to gauge according to appearances, especially if certain experiences prove that fear. But those that are misunderstood are
far more plentiful than those that are understood.

When you say 'who they are', do you mean their personality? Because what other is a personality than the product of one's desire to fit in (or
not)?

I read somewhere that this is actually a proven sixth sense that people have. It all has to do with our sense of smell, which is pretty amazing when
you think about it. The person doesn't have to necessarily be evil, but if you walk by someone and know to get away that mostly has to do with the
smell you are picking up (even if you don't notice a smell).

I'm not sure about evil. I've encountered a few oddballs. One my brother and I joke about was " The mutant". We were going on a hike and passed
some farms near the mountain. In the back of a pickup truck was a guy right out of a cheap slasher movie. He was big and had a shaved head with a
blank expression and staring eyes.
Another guy that creeped me out was a man we nicknamed " Questions". He'd come in at night and ask you to find something that it always turned
out we didn't have. Then it would be on to a new question about another item, basically just to get you to talk to him. We used to pass him off on
each other and laugh about it. Finally one night he asked me if we had any thing that you could use to put straps to a bed. Okay that was it, after
that I just avoided him like the plague and never helped him again.
Then there was "The Grump." This guy was the most miserable person you'd ever want to meet. He had a permanent scowl on his face and was just
irritable and nasty. He'd always buy the cheapest lunch meat ends and complain if there weren't any. He wore dirty mechanic coveralls constantly.
What's sad was that sometimes he'd bring his wife along and yell at her and she'd just walk behind him never saying a word. She had a shell shocked
blank smile on her face, like a whipped dog. You just knew he must have been abusive to her and living with that sorry excuse for a person must have
driven her to just shut down.
Another character was " Windshield" . This guy wasn't evil, just a complete jerk. He got his nickname from the scars on his forehead which he
kept covered, sometimes not. He just got off being obnoxious and a PITA. He got the nickname because we said he was running from the police, crashed
his car and went through the windshield. Or that he was arrested by the police for speeding, mouthed off and they went to work on his head with
nightsticks.
His reason for being such a creep: He got busted running a meth lab and marijuana farm. We were happy he's been put away for a while.

I used to think I "knew" people by looking at them. But in the end, I tired of being wrong. I found that if I talked to people, open them up a bit,
I could peer beyond their appearance to see better who they are, perhaps even make them smile.

It is completely natural to gauge according to appearances, especially if certain experiences prove that fear. But those that are misunderstood are
far more plentiful than those that are understood.

I think you are missing the point and overlooked a ton of great examples of people who have had that their feelings proven to be true.

Most people are talking something much more than looks, something like an extra sense not well understood. Looks alone can never tell you much about
someone there is far more to this. At the very least this would be some sort of protective instinct no one should ignore.

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